Tombstone
In 2007, Billy Graham’s wife, Ruth Graham, died. Before her death, she had already decided what she wanted to be written across her tombstone. And the words she chose had nothing to do with the remarkable achievements of her life.
As the story goes, she was driving along a highway one day that was under major construction. There were miles of detours, caution signs, heavy machinery, and equipment.
She finally came to the last construction sign on the highway and it read:
“End of construction. Thank you for your patience.”
Those are the words that Ruth Graham chose to have written across her tombstone.
Under Construction
I think Ruth Graham knew something that we all instinctively know, that we are under construction. That each and every day we are building a life.
Some of us will spend all our days building our business, or building a career, or building our family, or building a community, or building a government, or whatever it is that we decide to build.
But this is what we do. We are all builders.
What we sometimes forget is that we ourselves are being built as well. And the daily choices we make determine the people we become.
We are all constantly under construction.
Roots…
So what are you building your life on?
In Colossians 2.6-7, Paul says this…
“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be BUILT on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
Paul use two different metaphors here to talk about how our faith grows strong.
This first one is this idea that your “roots grow down into him.”
We’ve talked about the importance of roots before and how your faith grows. That before a plant grows UP, it grows DOWN.
This is the problem for so many people. They want to grow UP before they grow DOWN.
But there are no shortcuts in life or in spirituality.
Sometimes we look at people and wonder how they became an overnight success. But the truth is that there is rarely if ever such a thing as an overnight success. What we don’t see were the long years of hard work when no one was looking. What we don’t see are all the sacrifices that were made. All we see is the success and we want what they have and we’re upset and even jealous when we don’t have it.
But before a plant grows up it grows down.
And the same is true spiritually.
We see men and women and we look up to them as spiritual giants. We marvel at their words, their prayer life, their wisdom, their peace. We want what they have and we’re frustrated that we don’t have that kind of spiritual life, that kind of faith. But what we don’t see are the early mornings they spend with Jesus, the hours they put into reading and studying the scriptures, the time spent in prayer, in silence, in personal worship. What we don’t see are all the sacrifices they’ve made and all they’ve given away because they trust that God is faithful to provide and they want to use and steward what they’ve been given to make things on earth as they are in heaven. We see their faith and we want what they have, but before a plant grows up, it grows down.
So Paul says, let your roots grow down into him.
Foundation…
Then, switching metaphors, he says, “Let your lives be built on Him.”
But it’s really just another way to say the same thing. Because, before you build up, you have to build down!
This past summer our family got to spend a little time on vacation in New York City. While we were there, one of the things we took the kids to see was the Empire State Building.
You probably know a thing or two about the Empire State Building. It was built in 1930-31.
It has 103 stories. You can go to the 86th floor to the observation deck and on a clear day, you can see 80 miles in every direction into New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts!
When you go into the Empire State Building to the Observation Deck, they have a display set up showing the history of the building. I took a picture of this display entitled, “The Builders.”
These were the people in charge of the construction of the Empire State Building.
What they built in the amount of time they built it is something that continues to be written about in history books.
But do you know what they did before they ever started construction? Before they ever built the first story of the 103 story building?
They dug down. They had to excavate.
They had to dig down 55 feet into the earth to secure a foundation that would hold the weight of this building.
In so many ways, this is what Paul is saying to these young Christians in Colossae. You’ve got let your roots grow down deep into Jesus. You’ve got to build your lives on the firm foundation of Jesus.
What’s Next in the Construction of Your Life?
So what will be written on our tombstones when this life is over?
If all that was written on our tombstones were these words, “End of Construction. Thank you for your patience.” that would be enough.
Today we get to decide what’s next in the construction of our lives. What kind of brick we’re going to lay next. We get to decide if it’s time to remodel. We get to decide what blueprints we’re going to use. We get to decide who will be the general contractor for our soul.
What if the next decision you made was to build your life on Jesus? What if today you chose today to make decisions that revealed Jesus as your true foundation, the center of your life, the One who you are building your life on?
What we value most often becomes the very thing we end up building our lives upon. It’s that foundation, that daily decision about what we value most, that determines what kind of life we will build.
Choosing to let that foundation be Jesus leads us to build on our lives on the One who will never be shaken.
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